Bloodied on Silk
by Saengak
Summary: Any revolution comes with its casualties.


**A/N:** This work takes place during the Blood Mist Era, after Mei's forces set up camp outside Kiri.

* * *

Mei loved feathers.

She would collect a feather from whoever she could, file the end of the hollow shaft clean with her kunai, and store them lovingly in a box, tucked between sheets of wax paper. The first two that she had collected were a twin pair of flight feathers from her parents, both of them the deep, Terumi crimson that coloured her own wings. Her mother's was speckled with tiny gold flecks, while her father's darkened to a solid black at the tip. Mei kept one of her own feathers beside theirs so she could see how she had been born of them combined, red to black, shimmering with gold. It was all she had to remember them by, now.

The others that she kept ranged from her teammates - both dead and alive - to those which she had plucked during her missions. Her first kill had feathers that were black as a raven and Mei was not certain that all the blood had washed out of the feather's barbs. The next few kills lay beside the first, some singed at the edges from her lava style and others bleached and brittle from the acid mist she breathed. Mei kept each one of them carefully, not as trophies, as some did, but as a reminder of the corpses she had stood upon in order to get so far. She knew that there would be more to be added to the box before her collection was complete.

She wanted to add one of Yagura's stunted, stubby feathers and look upon it with satisfaction that _that_ was all that was left of his despotic rule. She wanted to look upon Zabuza's ragged grey contribution and not remember the bitter taste of his betrayal. She wanted to add a feather from Chojuro's brilliant kingfisher blue plumes once he was grown, knowing that he had shed his down and come into his own.

But most of all, she wanted to add a feather from Ao's soft, grey-blue wings.

"I'll give you one on your inauguration," he promised with a crooked smile, plucking a piece of down from the underside of his wing. "Until then, you can have this to stuff your pillow."

Mei pinched the silky piece of fluff between her fingers and pretended to scowl, but she tucked it away carefully in her pocket nonetheless. "I could order you," she said slyly, taking up her position as they prepared to spar. "You swore loyalty to me."

He spread his wings as if to taunt her, his wing feathers glistening in the sunset. "You could," Ao agreed solemnly, his hands flying through a series of seals. "But you wouldn't."

Mei spat lava at him for that, making Ao shout as the forest's carpet of leaves went up in burst of smoky fire. A quick suiton settled the matter before it could alarm the camp, but the distraction cost him. Mei dove at him like a hawk for her prey, her wings pinned tight against her back as she barrelled into him. Pinning him flat to the ground with his wings outstretched and his wrists under her hands, Mei laughed as Ao bucked against her to no avail.

"Don't move," Mei said dangerously, and Ao froze at the heat of her breath across his cheeks.

Stretching her wings out, she shielded them from prying eyes as she leaned in slowly and brushed her smirking lips against his mouth ever so lightly. Her wings were like flames, translucent at the edges where the sunlight lit them brightly, and he could not take his eyes off her.

He exhaled shakily as her nimble hand slipped beneath the shield of his feathers, tracing the sensitive skin on the underside of his wing. "Mei..."

In a flash, she plucked another piece of down from him and pushed off with a strong beat of her wings, laughing as she shot into the air. Ao leapt after her with an indignant shout, his wider wingspan bringing him close upon her heels within moments. "You! Come back!"

* * *

In public, Ao always followed three steps behind her, slightly to the right. That was his place as her aide.

He watched her as she briefed her team at the edge of their camp. All the shinobi gathered before her were outfitted and ready for the mission to come, their faces turned towards her with rapt attention. The faint torchlight at the gates scattered across the slope of her wings, sifting out the gold buried in her crimson and black, and it was as if the kami themselves had cloaked her in a mantle of stars.

It was his task to doubt, question, and test every plan that they made, to ensure that they could withstand the forces against them. There was no-one who was as keenly aware of their chances of failure than himself. But whenever she spoke, it was like being caught in a genjutsu. Her voice rose and fell, but it was always imbued with the steel of determination and confidence. When he had his eyes on her, he could believe in nothing but their inevitable success.

Her smile did ruthless things to his heart. He would have no-one else as Mizukage than her.

"Ao-taishou." A messenger leaned in to whisper a report in his ear and it was only through long practice that Ao kept his face stoic. A team had been intercepted by Yagura's forces while smuggling more rebels out of Kiri and their chances were not looking good. Mei would be busy leading her own mission but Ao had to act immediately. The safety of new defectors was always one of their priorities. She would forgive him for leaving without a goodbye.

"Gather a team of ten. We set out now."

* * *

When Mei turned to bid farewell, Ao was already gone, leaving only a messenger to inform her of his whereabouts. A fanciful wish crossed her mind - that perhaps he could be something other than so harshly practical - but she dismissed it as sentimental. This was just how Ao was.

Turning to her own team, she smiled. "Let's set out!"

* * *

"This one. He's her second-in-command, isn't he?"

A hand grabbed his hair roughly and Ao gasped as he was pulled out of the mud and forced to lift his face. His wings curled around himself protectively when his fractured ribs screamed in protest. The mission had gone worse than he could have imagined. Despite scouting out the place with his Byakugan, somehow _Hoshigaki Kisame_, the tailed beast without a tail, had managed to disguise his chakra signature. And now, his team laid dead and dying around him.

He opened an eye and saw the shark man's grinning face looming before him. "We'll take him alive. Pluck him like a bird and he should chirp like one."

_Fuck._

Ao spat blood in Kisame's face and blacked out from the blow that he received in return.

* * *

"Is Ao not back yet?"

Mei hung up her armour - bloodless, for the mission had gone smoothly - and shook out her hair. It was already daybreak, but sky was grey and heavy with rain. It was the same shade as those wings that he liked to cocoon her in, like he could shield her from the cruel world that way.

"Mei-sama..." Heki's tone was all wrong. Trepidation twisted in Mei's gut as she turned to her other general, her heart still thudding from the adrenaline of the mission. "We sent a backup team two hours ago after they failed to report back. We did not find Ao's body, but the rest of the team including the original is dead."

Outside her tent, lightning struck and shattered earth.

* * *

"Beg your Mizukage for forgiveness and I might be amused enough to spare you some pain."

Yagura's smile was wide. He turned a kunai between his hands again and again, testing the tip lightly with the pad of his finger as he stared down at Ao's bound, kneeling form. "Well?"

Ao stared woodenly at the cold marble floor, silent. He only had one Mizukage and it wasn't Yagura.

Yagura gestured and one of his lackeys stepped forward, drawing a kunai. Ao closed his eye and gritted his teeth, but the expected pain didn't come. Instead, the ropes trussing up his wings were cut and loosened. His eye snapped open as rough hands forcefully pulled the limb out to full length, crumpling feathers and threatening to wring the delicate bones out of joint.

Despite himself, Ao's breathing quickened and his hands twisted in their cuffs.

"You know what happens to traitors," Yagura laughed, his warped, scaly wings coming into view as he leaned forward in anticipation. "Especially ungrateful lower caste fucks like you."

* * *

Their group of rebels were recovering well despite their heavy losses. Mei made sure of it. Every ounce of her energy was poured into ensuring that everyone was accounted for. Teams were reshuffled, new missions assigned, and plans redrawn. Code phrases were changed, information secured, and allies informed. The entire camp was moved. When she made her rounds through the new campsite, she used up the rest of her shattered heart boosting morale.

They were going to win.

They were going to win.

_They were going to win._

Mei collapsed into bed at the end of the night and dreamt fitfully of the tortures that her love must be suffering. Dreadful scenarios replayed themselves behind her eyelids, each one worse than the last until she woke up whimpering, her pillow damp with tears.

Nearly falling off her bed in her haste, she reached for her box of feathers and threw it open with shaking hands. There in the box were the pieces soft grey-blue down that she had hoarded throughout the years, from the bits that Ao gave her teasingly to the pieces that she plucked from their shared bed. It covered the rest of the feathers in a thick layer and as Mei stroked it with the back of her hand, she suddenly realised that she had not collected any other feathers for a long time.

There was no question of launching a rescue. It had already been foolish to indulge such a thing as love. Now, it would only be selfish to go further. Mei knew, more clearly than any thought in her anguished mind, that Ao would be the first one to chide her if she wavered.

* * *

He didn't remember how it happened, only that he woke up and they were gone.

* * *

"Mei-sama..."

"Spit it out, Heki," Mei said briskly. She had no patience for meandering. Ao had never sounded so hesitant.

"This was left at the location of our old camp, Mei-sama." A large paper box was set carefully on her table. Its clear tape wrapping was already cut open. The communications team must have cleared it as safe, but it stank of blood.

Mei suppressed the urge to gag. "What…"

"This is a shock tactic, Mei-sama, so please—"

The blood rushing in her ears drowned out his voice as Mei stood and threw the box open. At first, she could not make sense of what she was seeing. Her stomach understood it before she did—she was hunched over and losing her breakfast when she realised what was inside.

Nestled on a bed of black silk were the final joints of Ao's wings with the long, trailing flight feathers still attached. The sheared edges of the bones were black with blood and the light grey-blue feathers closest to the wounds were stained dark.

The silk bedding was an insult.

Mei straightened and stumbled back to her desk, her eyes wild. Slamming her fist down on the desk hard enough that it shattered, Mei let out a wordless shout of utter fury and pain.

"Mei-sama!" Heki cried out, taking her swollen and bloodied hand. "Medic! Now!"

A med-nin rushed in and Mei slumped into her chair, staring blankly at the box laying in the desk's remains. She barely felt it when the medic set her dislocated fingers back into joint.

* * *

They left him in an open-aired cell. Ao stared at the misty blue sky as he laid on the thin, unwashed futon they'd allowed him, his maimed wings spread out on either side of him.

It hurt. His entire body stung and ached from the cuts and contusions he'd received from torture; he still couldn't quite breathe properly after his last waterboarding session. Just the thought of the gaping socket where his Byakugan had been made him sick to his stomach. His body felt heavy, as if it did not belong to him anymore.

But most of all, it hurt to look at the sky. It was an escape route that taunted him as the hours slipped by and the sun chapped his lips. Even though the pinioned ends of his wings had been cauterised and bandaged with salve, the phantom sensation of his bones being crushed still throbbed through him, reminding him that he would never tumble through the sky with Mei again. Their little escapades into the clouds were the one thing that gave them both some space to breathe when their responsibilities weighed heavy, and now Ao's heart ached for her more than ever.

He was hollowed out by the realisation he would most likely never see Mei again. He would no longer be able to stand proudly by her side, witness her becoming Mizukage, or fulfil his promise that he'd give her one of his feathers. Even if he managed to return, would she still look at him the same way? He'd been proud of his wings but now they were a mark of his weakness.

He knew Mei would not come for him. She'd promised him that she would prioritise Kiri and he knew that she was strong enough to hold to it. It made him smile, just a little, through the pain to know that Yagura would not be able to use him as bait.

They may have taken him but she would fly high above in the end.

* * *

"Now!" Mei shouted, spitting flames from her mouth. The wind snatched the heat of her jutsu from her face, dissipating it into the cold night air together with her voice, but all around her the sky lit up as the same message was passed down: _attack._

Knowing that her shinobi were behind her, Mei pulled her wings closer to her body and dove down, down, down. They cut through the mist like a blade falling upon the mass of shadows that was the village, and Mei grinned.

"Incoming!" she heard the distant yell of one of her sensors. There was barely a second's warning before great spheres of water were barrelling through the air towards them. Mei ducked and wove between the jutsus, wings straining hard, as Yagura's ground troops targeted them without mercy.

"Yahh!" Young Chojuro broke through a suiton with a swing of his Hirameikarei and Mei blinked the cold spray from her eyes, pride filling her chest.

Dark shapes detached from the buildings as Yagura's forces took off from the ground, struggling to gain altitude before Mei's shinobi shot them down. Those who made it sent all manner of jutsu at Mei's forces; those who didn't plummeted to their deaths. It was brutal, but they could not hold back now.

Mei grimaced as a water dragon roared through the night sky, lunging at them like a snake striking at prey. That was their cue to scatter. Splitting off into smaller flocks instead, they continued to bombard the border guards with ruthless efficiency.

Mei's wings snapped out as she neared a guard post, slowing her dive as her hands folded rapidly through familiar hand seals. Streams of lava rained down on them, but before the screams and the stench of burning flesh could reach her, Mei and her team were already gone, swooping deeper into Kiri. Heki and his team will take care of the rest; she and her team would take on Yagura and the Sanbi sealed inside him. She glanced around her and saw her shinobi flit through the mist all around her, the familiar colours of their feathers slicing through the air as their jutsus lit up the sky.

_"Ao,"_ she thought, gritting her teeth as she beat her wings hard. The hulking shadow that was the Mizukage tower grew larger as she darted through the thick mist. _"You'd better be waiting for me."_

* * *

"You're coming in," the guard growled as he grabbed Ao by the back of his shirt and dragged him onto his feet. Ao's wings snapped out to balance himself but he stumbled all the same when the missing weight of his mutilated wings betrayed him. Ao glanced back as he was brought out of the cell and clapped with chains, his heart aching with hope when he saw how the thick clouds flashed with fire and lightning.

"Mei," he murmured.

The guard slapped him hard, leaving his ear ringing and his mouth tasting of copper. "Shut up."

Ao bowed his head meekly, licking his bloodied lip.

When the guard turned around, however, Ao swung the chain between his cuffs over his head and snapped it taut with all the strength he had. The guard's wings batted at him wildly but Ao ducked his head and weathered the blows, gritting his teeth as he twisted the chain tighter. With a quick swipe of his foot, the guard went slamming down onto the floor with Ao on top, his elbow jamming right between his wings. The guard wheezed and jerked, thrashing beneath Ao's weight, but Ao was not a jounin for nothing. Seizing him by the jaw, Ao twisted sharply and the guard slumped dead.

Ao panted with exertion. With shaking hands, he searched the guard for the keys that he knew were there. When the chakra suppressing cuffs clattered to the ground, Ao was off immediately, jogging through the hallways of the prison complex and towards Mei's wild, pulsing chakra.

She was fighting hard. Her chakra boiled and bubbled at the edge of his senses, bursting like a volcano when she used her lava style. He could almost see the grin on her face, her face flushed from the heat and exertion that her jutsu demanded. He wanted to sprint as fast as he could to her, to spread his wings and take off the ground, but he was too weak and there were too many guards to deal with. By the time he emerged from the prison building, his jog had slowed down to a walk.

Frustration rose up in him as he stumbled and wheezed, his body trembling with pain as he leaned against the prison's gate. "Mei," he panted, breathing her name like a prayer as he forced himself to walk out onto the rioting streets. His bare feet dragged though the bloodied dirt. The shinobi ignored him, too intent on their battles to bother with an unarmed man, and Ao was glad. He kept to the sides, tucking his shortened wings close to his body as possible.

The taste of ash was heavy on his tongue.

* * *

Yagura was there waiting for her in the courtyard in front of the Mizukage tower, as if they'd arranged for a duel. He saw her first, lifting cold lavender eyes towards her as she swooped down onto him. Then his guards clashed with her team and everything exploded into chaos.

"Yagura—!" she shouted, pinning her wings back against her back and forming hand seals as gravity took over. The tiles of the courtyard cracked beneath her feet as she landed, her wings flaring behind her.

She breathed, and acid spilled thick from her mouth.

Yagura's face was blank and so were his eyes. "You're finally here." His body contorted, coral-like bone breaking out from beneath skin as his lavender irises bled red. His wings shrivelled too, until they were nothing more than scaly humps on an armoured back. Mei said nothing as the Sanbi broke through Yagura's human skin, its chakra spilling out like crashing waves. She charged instead, pressing her outstretched wings down hard to propel herself forward through the thickening air, and came at him with lava forming on her tongue.

It burnt. The turtle demon howled, its eerie echo ringing through Kiri as Mei snapped her wings and avoided the furious lash of its tails. "_Again!_" Hot lava bubbled through her teeth and she spat it out at the Sanbi's feet to immobilise it, her hands already folding in the next set of hand seals. She had a strategy, and Sage help her, she was putting her very life on the line tonight.

* * *

"Who are you?" Ao demands, his feet dragging to a stop when he saw the black-cloaked figure watching from the same alleyway Ao had entered. His wings were jet black like a crow's, and as he turned, he revealed a one-eyed orange mask.

"And who are you?" the man asked, tone jarringly cheerful yet derisive.

Ao stood by warily, noting the good view that the man had of Mei's fight. He had obviously been watching it unfold. "Are you a supporter of Yagura?"

The man shook out his feathers as if he was laughing silently in amusement. "No. How arrogant. You Kiri-nin are all my pawns, even your Yondaime."

His words confirmed the strange sensation that had niggled at the back of Ao's brain. Ao was not the best sensor in Kiri for nothing, but if his instincts were correct...

"KAI!" Ao shouted, pulsing his remaining chakra hard. The link between that cloaked man and the rampaging Sanbi snapped and the man cursed, turning on Ao.

"_You!_" he snarled, and Ao staggered backwards. Ao heard Mei's war cry even as the man advanced on him, his black wings flaring and blocking Mei from Ao's gaze. "You'll pay for that!"

He was too weak to escape, his chakra gone and his wings ruined, but he could feel Mei's chakra brighten as her spirit lifted, and—

He was grateful for the chance to go out fighting.

* * *

Yagura's tails lashed out, threatening to gore Mei again as she darted about him. Her wings thrust out to counterbalance her twists and turns as she covered him with layer after layer of lava, and the Sanbi snapped at her agitatedly. The Sanbi was dripping with molten rock, its flesh slowly being cooked from the heat as it tried to free its encased legs. Her shinobi were right beside her, covering for her whenever she needed to catch her breath.

Even with a sluggishly bleeding gash in her side and her long hair singed at the ends, Mei's blood was running hot with confidence. The Sanbi had suddenly lost steam a while ago, its tailed beast ball flickering out in its mouth like a snuffed candle. It seemed confused, as if it had suddenly realised the situation it was in. Strange as its behaviour was, it was then Mei knew that they were going to win.

"Everyone," she shouted. "Back away!"

With a final hand seal, she let loose the final jutsu that she had been preparing all this while. The ground beneath the Sanbi collapsed, having been slowly melted into a lake of lava with only a thin crust of rock to support the tailed beast's weight. With that jutsu, the crust shattered and the tailed beast fell to its death.

It sank with a scream that sounded more human than animal as its form began to warp, its bone armour melting into slag as Yagura lost control of its powers and the Sanbi struggled to escape Yagura's burning body. Mei watched in horrified relief as the screeching monstrosity sank, its thrashing tails growing more and more sluggish as the lava cooled and hardened.

Then, it was still.

Mei staggered and hands caught her. The hoarse, relieved voices of her shinobi reached her ears as she's guided towards a med-nin. "Mizukage-sama," they cheered. "Godaime-sama!"

Mei wept, overcome with joy as their voices called out in victory. They'd made it. They'd finally made it! Her vision was flickering from exhaustion and the blood from her wound was soaking through her clothes, but she reached out and grabbed Heki's arm. "Please," she murmured as his sympathetic face swam into view. "Go find Ao."

"Yes, Mizukage-sama. Of course."

* * *

There was someone shouting in his ear, begging with words that he could not manage to decipher.

They said that dying was like sinking under the sea, Ao remembered vaguely. The waves were closing over his head. Water filled his ears and muffled the noises of the world beyond, and as he sank, the lights above grew dim. The weight of the sea crushed the air from his lungs and his vision blurred to grey, growing darker with each throb of his slowing heartbeat. But the pain was lifting from him, and Ao was buoyed in the gentle in-between of here and the beyond.

He was ready to go.

Just as he was about to close his eyes, a flash of red-gold filtered through the falling darkness. Ao's breath caught. He couldn't see anything but he knew she was here.

"Wait!" He tried to cry out but he was mute, his mouth full of coppery salt and his lungs filled with water.

Her voice was crying his name. Warmth filtered through the cold sea again, the waters turning warm as he struggled upwards with his lead-laden limbs. He dragged his water logged wings through the water, beating them hard until his shoulders screamed and his feathers snapped under the strain.

Pain inundated him but he was alive again, gasping for breath as he strained towards her voice.

"Ao, wake up! _Ao!_"

His eye snapped open and her crimson feathers filled his vision, bright as the sun. Her wings were stretched over him like a curtain of flames, shimmering gold before fading black at the edges. The cold embrace of the sea burnt away in her presence.

"Look at me," she gasped, her emerald eyes bright with tears as she cradled his head in her lap. The glow of iryo-jutsu from the medic working beside her lit her face and Ao couldn't look away even if he wanted to. "Hold on, Ao, don't you dare let go."

"You're here," Ao mouthed, smiling weakly.

"Don't be silly," she whispered. "Of course I am."

* * *

_Epilogue_

He was waiting for her in her office when she finished her inauguration speech, his face still turned towards the window as he peered down at the cheering crowds. At the sound of her footsteps, he looked over and his face brightened into a smile. "Mizukage-sama," he said, struggling to stand. Behind him, Chojuro echoed his greeting with a stutter, blushing red.

"Oh, don't," she scolded, pressing him down onto the wheelchair again and giving Chojuro a warm smile. "You're still healing. Don't set back your progress just for some formalities."

Ao's smile softened as he reluctantly settled back down. "You sound like me."

"Only naturally," Mei said, slightly flustered. "We've been around each other for so long."

Ao tried to protest as she took over the control of his wheelchair and dismissed Chojuro for the day, but Mei would have none of it. "You're Mizukage, now," he said, glancing back at her with a flush on his cheeks. "This is improper."

Mei leaned close to him. "Shut up," she whispers. "Or I'll kill you."

He immediately fell silent, his wings drawing closer against his back.

"I'm just joking, Ao," she murmurs contritely.

He glances back at her again and gives her a small, nervous smile. "Of course."

Mei smiles back and tries not to let the ache in her heart show. It's been different ever since she'd gotten him back. The injuries were one thing. Mei was grateful just to have him back alive, especially after they'd found him concussed and bleeding out in the alley just meters away from her, bearing the marks of torture. But it was obvious that Ao had lost part of his spirit together with his flight.

Mei tried to fill the silence between them with light-hearted chatter as they made their way through the Mizukage tower towards the barracks, where Ao's room was. She had arranged for him a private room there, to keep a closer eye on him and to make it easier for him to reach the office. Despite taking the less travelled paths, however, Mei often she had to interrupt herself to field congratulations from her shinobi. Ao composed himself as usual, nodding, frowning and occasionally giving a few words of advice, but Mei knew to keep the conversations short. Even as he thanked them solemnly for their well wishes, the faint lines of discomfort on his face were obvious to her whenever they brought up his injuries.

He was quiet with exhaustion by the time they made it into his room, his wings so determinedly hidden away that his feathers were getting crushed against the seat of his wheelchair. "Thank you," he murmured as she helped him get up and sit on the edge of the bed. He tucked his wings away again, hiding their amputated ends from her view. "I can manage."

She took his hand and sat down beside him, letting her concern show on her face. "I know you can. But I want to help you."

He can't quite meet her eyes. "I suppose I've broken my promise," he says eventually, and Mei frowns. "You became Mizukage but I don't have the flight feathers you wanted anymore." He stretched out one of his wings slowly and ran his hand over it, picking at the remaining feathers with a grimace. They'd become brittle and dull after his time spent at Yagura's mercy, and his plumage was thin and ragged. The sight of the stump at his shortened wingtip alternately made people stare in horror or avert their eyes in sympathy, but she wished he knew that she loved him regardless. "Maybe I can give you one of the secondary feathers here..." he mused, sounding troubled. "But—"

"Shut up," Mei whispered, embracing him tight as she choked back tears. He was tense in her arms. "Do you think I care about whether your feathers are shiny or not? Or whether they're flight feathers or some other type? I don't want feathers in a box, I don't want your wings—I want _you_."

"Mei," he breathed. There was still a sliver of uncertainty in his eyes.

"You kept your promise," Mei said fervently. She buried her face in his chest until she felt the warmth of his wing curve tentatively around her shaking back. "You told me you'd be here after it all and you _are_. You came back to me." When she raised her head again, Ao's eyes were filled with disbelieving hope. With both hands, she cradled his face gently. "This is more than enough. Having you by my side was the promise I treasured."

He smiled tentatively and Mei's heart ached with happiness. "I wanted to see you again," he whispered, "just one more time."

Leaning in, she pressed a gentle kiss onto his lips. "So did I."

He breathed her name again, his eye slipping closed, and he kissed her back just like she'd dreamed. "Let's make it a lifetime."


End file.
